Part 39 (1/2)

When she was about half done, Kevin started coming around. He was weak from loss of blood and confused. He started to struggle as Candi was piercing his skin for the second part of a st.i.tch.

”Hold him still!”

The other two held him down as best they could, but Candi couldn't make the stiches and hold his injured arm at the same time. She had to calm him down. ”Kevin! Kevin! Listen to me! You were hurt. I'm st.i.tching you up, but you have to lie still!”

He stopped moving for a second. ”Gumdrop?”

”Yes, it's me. Can you stop moving, please?”

”Hurts,” he moaned.

”I know, I'm almost done. I'm st.i.tching your arm up. Please stop moving.” She looked at Sarah. ”Sarah, come over here and hold his other arm down. I can't have him moving it while I'm st.i.tching.

Sarah said nothing, just followed her instructions.

Candi finished the st.i.tching with only minor struggles from Kevin. He fell unconscious again near the end, which made it go faster.

”There. Done. Thirty-five st.i.tches. He probably needs more, but we are out of thread. The scar is going to be ugly.” She didn't want to consider the fact that it might get infected and then there would never be a scar.

”Sarah, can you clean it up real good with the salt water and then clean water? I'm going to go clean myself off. I'll bring your dress with me to the shower and see what I can do about getting the blood out.” She looked down and saw that her green top and capris were covered in blood too.

”Sure, you go ahead.”

Jonathan joined Candi at the shower. ”You were awesome, Candi. You saved his life.”

Candi didn't feel any better at hearing his compliments. ”He lost a lot of blood, there's nothing I can do about that.”

”Yeah, but he's tough. He'll pull through, you'll see. Just stay positive. We still need to deal with these drug dealers who are going to be back soon.”

”How do you know they'll be back soon?”

”Well, I a.s.sume they will because those plants look pretty big, like they're ready to harvest. I think when they come again, they'll bring more guys and more boats. That's a lot of plants to haul.”

”Makes sense.” She sighed, not wanting to think about that awful reality.

They finished was.h.i.+ng off and then relieved Sarah so she could do the same. She put her soggy and slightly blood-stained dress back on biting her lip before setting her mouth in a thin, determined line.

”Thanks, Candi. You saved him. I'll never forget this.”

Candi was embarra.s.sed. ”You would have done the same if it were Jonathan.”

They gave each other a fierce hug before Sarah left to go wash off.

Kevin slept on, his face a scary shade of white. Even his lips looked pale.

”Can you get our food ready today, Jonathan? I'm going to stay here with Kevin.”

”Sure, no problem, Candi. Sarah and I will take care of everything.”

The rest of the night pa.s.sed without incident. Kevin continued to breathe shallowly but with no sign of fever. Candi slept with him, getting up every hour or so, trying to get him to drink and checking his wound.

The next day Kevin woke up for a few hours. He wasn't able to stand for longer than a minute because he was feeling really weak, but the color was starting to come back to his face. Candi insisted that everyone let him sleep as much as possible, while she barely slept at all.

Jonathan and Sarah handled all the housekeeping duties, taking turns watching from the lookout tree at the cove. Jonathan shared his concerns with Candi and Sarah and they agreed the bad guys were coming back. Soon.

After a week had pa.s.sed, Kevin was finally able to resume his schedule, minus the strenuous morning workouts. His appet.i.te was back, and he was given double portions at every meal to help him build up his strength. He had a h.e.l.l of a scab forming on his arm, skinny in some spots, thick and mottled in others.

”Man, I feel like I got run over by a bus,” he said one night when he was finally able to join them around the fire. ”Cool scar though.”

”Well, you did get run over ... by a boat. I'm thinking that's pretty much the same thing,” said Candi. She looked at his arm. ”That scar is awful. I'm sorry I didn't do a better job sewing you up.”

”So tell us again, Kevin, what happened out there on the boat. The last couple of times we asked you, you were still a little fuzzy on the details,” said Jonathan. They had held off questioning him too seriously up until now, since the loss of blood apparently made him a little woozy and not so lucid all the time.

Kevin related his experience to them again, including the transmission by someone looking for Juan. They debated whether the message was heard by anyone who could help them. It was disturbing that he hadn't heard any response when he was done; and the fact that there was some guy looking for 'Juan' on the channel was worrisome too.

”Maybe I didn't get a response because I had to get the h.e.l.l out of there,” offered Kevin. ”Maybe they responded after I shut it off.”

”Yeah, but who wouldn't immediately respond to such an obvious distress call?” asked Candi. ”And if they did respond later, that means they responded to the wrong guys.”

He switched topics. ”By the way, I'm ready to start doing lookout s.h.i.+fts again.”

Candi looked at him with concern, but it was Sarah who spoke up. ”I don't think you climbing trees is such a good idea right now.”

”Why?”

”Because just the other day you were mumbling on about how Candi was Wonder Woman and you were Superman and you were going to make superhero babies together some day.”

Candi's face flamed red.

Kevin just looked confused. ”I did?”

”Yeah, among other things,” volunteered Jonathan, grinning around the food he had in his mouth.

”Fine,” conceded Kevin. ”Maybe I'll just go with Candi and keep her company.” He looked at her for approval.

She knew he was going crazy being in the treehouse all the time. ”That's okay with me, if you guys think it is.” She looked around at the others and they nodded in agreement.

”So what's the new plan?” asked Kevin. ”I a.s.sume you've already made those decisions while I was sleeping the week away.”

”We figured the next time they come, we need to be ready to get the h.e.l.l out of here,” said Sarah.

”Isn't that too risky?” he asked.

”Well of course it's risky, but at this point, it might be too risky not to. First of all, since the next time they come it will probably be to harvest, they're likely going to bring more than one boat, and more guys too. We need to somehow get to one of those boats and drive it away. We also need to disable the other boat or boats so they can't follow us.”

Kevin nodded but said, ”Why don't we just hide from them and stay here?”